by Janet Damianopoulos
INNOVATORS
WINNING IMMUNITY Halifax-based clinical stage vaccine development company, Immunovaccine, is forging new paths in cancer and infectious disease management, earning much evidence-based accolade. CEO John Trizzino and chief science officer Marc Mansour are steering the company as a team from the business and science sides respectively. A seasoned health care business professional, Trizzino has over 17 years of experience dealing with infectious disease vaccines. With a PhD in molecular and cellular biology specializing in immune cells, Mansour has guided the company’s scientific foundation from the beginning over 10 years ago. Trizzino and Mansour share the story of Immunovaccine, making it clear that the company values ambition, versatility and the highest quality research. Immunovaccine grew around technology developed at Dalhousie University for the purpose of immunocontraception in animal populations. It has since been tailored to human immunotherapy and infectious disease applications. The DepoVax™ is a vaccine delivery system that combines antigens and adjuvant, carried via liposomes, in a depot – an oil-based solution that retains them at the site of vaccination. The DepoVax platform is unique in that it emulates a real bug. Upon injection, immune cells are attracted in large numbers to the depot, actively clearing it over a prolonged period of time. The attraction and long term exposure of antigen presenting cells to the depot generates a robust immune response. Early on, the technology was licensed out to Pfizer Animal Health. While Immunovaccine continues to pursue animal health applications (now exploring the potential to target infectious disease in companion animals), its early vision was far broader in scope. As the DepoVax technology is effective on multiple platforms, the company wanted to leverage it wherever possible. “After a long evaluation we made a strategic decision to start focusing on human health applications for the platform. It was a huge challenge and I’m all about taking challenges so it was great,” says Mansour.
Halifax company leads the way in vaccine development
In 2005, Immunovaccine began to delve into tests with known cancer models of the time. Mansour describes the light bulb moment reviewing the results of the first study demonstrating the platform could enhance a cancer vaccine: “I still remember that meeting when the immunologist came into the room and showed us the results… I was looking at the results and we were all
antigen at Merck KGA, Survivin, was a biomarker for cancer that had been the subject of much scientific literature. Immunovaccine very quickly developed DPX-Survivac, completing necessary safety studies and preclinical work and getting clearance in the US and Canada to run clinical trials in less than a year. Since December 2011, the product has been in the Phase 1 trial stage of a Phase 1-2 pro-
“When you’re talking about vaccines for addiction you want to get the body’s immune system to respond as robustly and as efficiently as possible so what we’re trying to do here is to enhance the benefit of their antigen candidate to get as quick and durable a response as possible.” — John Trizzino looking at each other thinking ‘how can you not be jumping up and down?’” A series of further studies and published papers quickly followed. Licensing some antigens from a company in the U.S., Immunovaccine very quickly developed DPX-0907. At the same time, the company was working on its manufacturing process and making DepoVax scalable and thus possible to commercialize. Things came together in 2008/2009 when the company started making DPX-0907 in the U.S. and filed its first IND with the FDA. DPX-0907 went through a Phase 1 trial in a record 9 months targeting patients with breast, ovarian and prostate cancer. “It was the first time DepoVax made it into the clinic so we demonstrated a good safety profile and showed that it is generating immunity in humans,” says Mansour. Presently, Immunovaccine is looking to take DPX-0907 into a Phase 2 trial. During the DPX-0907 Phase 1 trial, the company struck a deal with Merck KGA to take an early stage clinical product from their pipeline, put it in DepoVax to enhance it and take it into the clinic in a better format. The
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14 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS JULY/AUGUST 2012
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